Cemetery patrol spooks pair (COLUMN)

It was a late midnight shift in early autumn when I was still a rookie. I was partnered with a senior officer. He was the funniest officer in the department. He was always entertaining to ride with, had a great sense of humor and kept you laughing all night.

It was almost 3 a.m. when he suggested we make a drive through Woodland Cemetery as there was some recent vandalism of tombstones. My partner began to tell me about the rich history of the cemetery. He inquired if I had ever seen the Custer grave plot? He explained that the general was not buried there but several family members were.

It was a near perfect setting for what one would expect of a cemetery at night. While driving through the main gate, a misty fog shrouded the area, like thousands of spider webs, obscuring the little moonlight available.

We both turned on our spotlights and positioned them out our respective side of the car. As we drove slowly around the gloomy interior, the bright, condensed beams of light bounced across the large tombstones. The only sound was the idling engine and gravel crunching under our tires. I had just turned toward my partner to ask him a question, when suddenly I saw an indistinct shape of dull light moving slightly forward of the spotlight beam. This weird light shape continued forward of the beam for several seconds, then suddenly shot straight down, vanishing into the ground.

My partner slowly turned his face away from the light toward me. I'll never forget that look. One of his eyebrows was arched significantly higher than the other, accentuating a look of pure bewilderment. We both asked in unison, "Did you see that?!"

We piled out of the car with our flashlights in hand and walked cautiously through the fog, toward where we last saw the apparition. I was standing in the exact area it had gone down into the ground. I shone my light in a semi-circle, suddenly illuminating a small placard that read, "Custer Grave Plot." I felt a cold shiver from deep within and the tiny hairs on my arms stood up.

Not knowing what kind of mood the long departed spirit was in, we both made a tactical retreat of the area.

Tom Mohrbach is recently retired from 25 years in law enforcement, most of it with the City of Monroe Police Department. These are his stories.

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